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Multinational healthcare company Abbott’s new greenfield plant to produce nutrition products is poised to go on stream in Jhagadia (Gujarat).
The plant is being inaugurated by Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel, on Thursday.
With an investment of Rs 450 crore, the plant would employ more than 400 people, the company said, adding that it would source about 80 per cent of its ingredients, locally. The plant is Abbott’s third manufacturing site in India, the other two being in Baddi and Goa.
The Jhagadia plant will manufacture high-quality nutritional products for India, including Similac for infants; PediaSure - a toddler nutrition brands; Ensure for adult nutrition; Mama’s Best for expectant and breastfeeding moms and Glucerna, nutrition for people with diabetes.
In 2012, Abbott opened a nutrition research and development centre in Bangalore to accelerate the development and delivery of local science-based nutrition products for India. The new nutrition manufacturing plant and Abbott’s nutrition R&D centre will work together in an effort to deliver innovations that address unmet health needs while offering new flavours and formats that meet specific Indian tastes and preferences, the company said. One of the first products developed in India and manufactured at Jhagadia is PediaSure Kesar Badam, a saffron almond flavour.
Spread over more than 39 acres (over 159,850 square metres), the Jhagadia plant uses a completely sealed production procedure with ‘Zero Touch’ and ‘Zero Exposure’ that ensures products are untouched by human hands until the final packaging stage and are not exposed to outside elements during manufacturing.
In addition, Abbott has designed the plant to help safeguard the environment by minimising CO2 emissions, water use and waste, the company said. For example, the Jhagadia plant is the first nutrition facility in Gujarat to harness new environmentally friendly ‘Karnal’ technology to reuse water from the plant to nourish a new 10 acre forest of 6,800 eucalyptus and casuarina trees planted on-site, it added.
Local sourcing
Abbott plans to co-develop and source up to 80 per cent of ingredients from local suppliers for its nutrition products sold in India, the company added. Abbott is also developing a program to provide infrastructure and training to dairy farmers in rural areas of India. The goal of the program is to provide 1,500 small-holder dairy farmers with the support and infrastructure they need to help them increase their incomes, while expanding the supply of high-quality milk needed for our new plant. Through this program, Abbott plans to provide targeted technical and business training in an effort to help farmers grow their business and strengthen the local dairy industry, while also strengthening Abbott's supply chain, the company said.
In India, Abbott has over 14,000 employees working in manufacturing, research and development, logistics, sales and marketing.
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